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National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
Main Getting Started Teacher's Guide Student Activities About NIH and NIMH
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Students experience a surprise event and think about their physical, emotional, and cognitive responses to it. They then determine that the brain is the organ that regulates all of their responses. Students respond to a series of questions that allow them to express their current understanding of mental illness. Students view PET images to consider how some changes in the brain are short term while other changes are long term. This knowledge introduces them to the concept of mental illness.
The brain is the body organ that controls thinking, feelings, and behavior. Changes in the brain’s activity result in changes in each of these responses. These changes can be either short term or long term. A mental illness is a health condition that changes a person’s thinking, feelings, or behavior (or all three) and that causes the person distress and difficulty in functioning.
After completing this lesson, students will
Consult the following sections in Information about Mental Illness and the Brain:
| Activity | Web Component? |
|---|---|
| 1 | Yes |
| 2 | No |
| 3 | Yes |
| Activity | Master | Number of copies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Web version) | None | |
| 1 (print version) | Master 1.1, Find the Mistakes | 1 copy per student |
| 2 | Master 1.2, What Do You Think? | 1 copy per student |
| 3 (Web version) | None | |
| 3 (print version) | Master 1.3, What’s Happening in the Brain? | 1 color transparency* |
| *Alternatively, you could make color copies and laminate them. Make enough copies so each team has 1 copy. | ||
| Activity | Materials |
|---|---|
| 1 (Web version) |
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| 1 (print version) |
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| 2 | no materials needed |
| 3 (Web version) |
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| 3 (print version) |
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| *See suggestions in the procedure for alternate ideas for this activity. | |
Refer to the section Using the Web Site for details about hardware and software requirements for using the Web site. All computers should have an appropriate version of Macromedia Flash Player.
If using the Web-based versions of Activities 1 and 3, make sure that the Internet connection is working properly. Also, for Activity 1, set the volume at maximum.
If using the print-based version of Activity 1, blow up the balloon and hide it in the classroom away from students but where you can reach it easily without students noticing. If you use another “surprise” technique, make sure it is ready beforehand.
Note to teachers: Do not inform students before beginning this module that they will be studying mental illness. The first activity will be most effective if there is an element of surprise.
This activity should be completed quickly. The responses that students give to the questions (Steps 4–8) don’t need to be covered exhaustively, but it is important that students respond with the key points. The main ideas that students need to get from this exercise are that 1) the brain controls a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and 2) if something such as a mental illness changes a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, the individual probably cannot function normally or effectively in daily life. Once students mention the key idea at the appropriate point, you don’t need to continue that line of questioning. In some cases, additional questions are included to prompt students if they don’t respond in the desired way to the initial question.
For classes using the Web-based version of this activity:
The goal of this activity is to induce a brief anxiety response in students. To accomplish this successfully, you need to maintain an element of surprise. Make sure that you have the Web site opened to the appropriate page and the volume turned up prior to the beginning of class. You may wish to have the projector turned off until you are ready to show the video to the class.
You might find it more convenient to read the e-mail to them or to just tell them the premise in your own words. It isn’t necessary for students to read the e-mail themselves; it is on the Web site simply to add realism to the scenario.
The amount of time before something happens on the video will vary each time it is played. Let the video continue to play until students have experienced the surprise event at least twice. Click on the X in the upper right corner of the window to stop the video and close that window.
List the responses on the board or a transparency. Try to elicit a wide range of responses from students. Their responses will likely be quite varied. The fact that different individuals respond differently to the same information (stimulus) will be an important point for students to remember in later lessons. Not only do people respond to information differently, their brains differ in susceptibility to illness.
Some representative answers for how individuals reacted to the video include
In the next step, students will group their responses into three categories. As you write their responses on the board, make sure that some of the responses will fit into each of the categories. If there are no student responses for a specific category, you might prompt them by asking questions such as, “Did anyone jump during the video?” or “Was anyone nervous during the video?” or “Did anyone wonder what was going to happen next?” Add the appropriate words to the list of responses.
Tip from the field test: Although this video worked well in most field-test situations, a few classes did not find the video scary or anxiety provoking. The teachers who had that experience simply asked students to recall a situation that they have experienced, such as giving an oral presentation to the class, performing in front of an audience, or watching a scary movie. Most students can remember some situation during which they felt nervous, anxious, or scared. Some teachers found the video more effective if students gathered around a computer screen to view it rather than watching it projected onto a screen.
If students have difficulty thinking of categories, you can start by writing the words “behaviors (or actions)” on the board. Which of the responses belong in this category? Ask students if they can think of another category. Again, if students have difficulty, you can prompt them by pointing out a specific response such as “scared” or “nervous” and then ask, “What are these?” When students respond that they are feelings, write “emotions or feelings” on the board as a category.
The goal for these questions is for students to realize that their responses can be grouped into three categories:
Examples of responses that would fit into each category are shown in the table below.
| Behaviors (actions) | Feelings (emotions) | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| jumped screamed yelled laughed |
scared nervous anxious afraid |
concentrated wondered curious |
The conclusion that students should reach is that the brain regulates all of these responses. Students might name a number of body systems that are involved in controlling their responses. For example, they might say their muscles control their jumping or that their voice box (larynx) controls their screaming. If students do not conclude that the brain is the control center for all of these responses, you can help them by asking questions such as
Students likely will respond that they do not behave, feel, or think the same as they did at the exact moment of the surprise during the video. This points out that their responses to the video were short term, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.
This discussion is a good opportunity to reinforce the fact that the brain regulates our behavior, emotions, and thoughts. Students may give examples of things that would cause the brain to change over a long period of time, such as learning. Students may also suggest illness. At this point, accept all reasonable answers. If students give mental illness as a response, tell them that they will investigate this in the upcoming lessons. If students do not mention mental illness, suggest it as a possibility.
Keeping this secret will definitely be a challenge. However, because the timing of the surprise is somewhat random, the anticipation that students experience even if they know what will happen can produce some surprise. If you choose, you could do the Web version of the activity with some classes and the print version with others.
Alternate version of Activity 1 for classes without access to the Internet:
The goal of this activity is to induce a brief anxiety response in students. To increase the intensity level, you might periodically call out the time remaining. If students ask how many mistakes they should find in the drawing, you might want to give a vague response to keep them looking and concentrating on finding more errors.
The element of surprise is important for this activity. You may wish to hide the balloon at the back of the classroom so most students will not notice it while they concentrate on their task.
Field-test teachers used different techniques to create the surprise noise. Examples included blowing a whistle, sounding an air horn, dropping a heavy book loudly on the floor, and playing a cassette tape of someone screaming from a hidden tape recorder. Other anxiety-inducing events could include giving a pop quiz over material they haven’t covered or asking students to turn in research papers that were not actually assigned. Make sure whatever surprise you select is appropriate for your school setting. The goal is for students to experience feelings of apprehension, anxiety, or fear and a physiological response, such as increased heart rate or jumpiness, for a brief period of time.
Write the responses on the board or on a transparency. Try to elicit a wide range of responses from students. Their responses likely will be quite varied. The fact that different individuals respond differently to the same information (stimulus) will be an important point for students to remember in later lessons. Not only do people respond to information differently, their brains (like other parts of the body) differ in susceptibility to illness.
Some representative answers for how individuals reacted to the surprise event include
In the next step students will group their responses into three categories. As you write their responses on the board, make sure that some of the responses fit into each of the categories. If there are no student responses for a specific category, you might prompt them by asking questions such as, “Did anyone jump when the balloon popped?” or “Was anyone nervous when the balloon popped?” or “Did anyone wonder what was going to happen next?” Add the appropriate words to the list of responses.
If students have difficulty thinking of categories, you can start by writing the words “behaviors (or actions)” on the board. Which of the responses belong in this category? Ask students if they can think of another category. Again, if students have difficulty, you can prompt them by pointing out a specific response such as “scared” or “nervous” and then ask, “What are these?” When students respond that they are feelings, write “emotions or feelings” on the board as a category.
The goal for these questions is for students to realize that their responses can be grouped into three categories:
Examples of responses that would fit into each category are shown in the table below.
| Behaviors (actions) | Feelings (emotions) | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| jumped screamed yelled laughed |
scared nervous anxious afraid |
concentrated wondered curious |
Students might name a number of body systems that are involved in controlling their responses. For example, they might say their muscles control their jumping or that their voice box (larynx) controls their screaming. The conclusion that students should reach is that the brain regulates all of these responses. If students do not conclude that the brain is the control center for all these responses, you can help them by asking questions such as
Encourage students to focus on their responses at that instant in time when the balloon popped. Students likely will respond that they do not behave, feel, or think the same as they did at the exact moment when the balloon popped. This points out that their responses to the balloon pop were short term, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.
This discussion is a good opportunity to reinforce the fact that the brain regulates our behavior, emotions, and thoughts. Students may give examples of things that would cause the brain to change over a long period of time, such as learning. Students may also suggest illness. At this point, accept all reasonable answers. If students give mental illness as a response, tell them that they will investigate this in the upcoming lessons. If students do not mention mental illness, suggest it as a possibility.
Keeping this secret will definitely be a challenge. However, because the timing or nature of the surprise is somewhat random, the anticipation that students experience even if they know something will happen can produce some surprise and anxiety. If you choose, you might want to do different surprise events with different classes.
Next: Lesson 1 (Page 2 of 2)
